Lyr Req: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?

Subject: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: dalek
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 12:44 PM

Im really keen to do a version of this song, nice and bouncy, with plenty of irish flair, except the only lyrics i can remember are " its of a pretty female as you will understand", i am reluctant to put these lyrics into a search engine as it will proberbly throw up the entire librery of folk music at me!!!(lets face it, they all start like that dont they!!!)

dalek

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: MMario
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 01:00 PM

Dalek - here

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: dalek
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 01:55 PM

Thankyou very much mmario! ive been after this song for ages, guess ive got some learning to do tonight! dalek

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: MMario
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 02:06 PM

no problem. We'll give you another week before we start yelling about "CHECK THE DATABASE FIRST" *grin*

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 03:09 PM

Just as an aside, for a little dalek who hasn't got the hang of his coathanger zap gun yet - try putting in some key words, rather than trying to remember the title or first lines. You may have to juggle them a little, and plough through a few songs, but it does work in the long run.

LTS

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 03:10 PM

Of course, if you mean do I have any ideas about what to do WITH the handsome cabin boy, see me after.....

LTS

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: MMario
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 03:19 PM

I KNEW someone was going to go there....

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 04:10 PM

LTS, the handsome cabin boy was a girl...er, never mind.

Of course, there's the version Short Jacket and White Trousers, where the Captain makes a pass while he still thinks she's a "he" - or maybe he just suspects.

Wonder why they never had handsome shanty boys. I mean, it would really help with those people who think only men should sing chanteys!

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:01 PM

Also as "The Handsome (or Female) Cabin Boy" there are several copies on the Bodley Ballads website.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:13 PM

OK, now this has me wondering- the "Handsome Cabin Boy that we have in the database is DT #445, Laws N13. We have only one example of this song in the database, although I suspect we have had other versions posted in the forum.
The song Jeri refers to, Short Jacket and White Trousers, is DT #444, Laws N14. A search for #444 brings up three songs (click). Aren't they the same song, or what's the difference? Why don't they have the same numbers?
Bruce? Please to explain.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:33 PM

Joe, they may have been given different numbers, because in #444, female is discovered and gets pregnant. In #445, she gets away with it, and then makes fun of the sailors when she gets to shore. Just a guess - perhaps Bruce O. or someone else knows the correct answer.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:33 PM

The second 'Short Jacket' one in DT shouldn't be subtitled 'Cabin boy', because there's no indication that that's her position. It's Laws N12, 'The Maid in Sorrow' or 'Short Jacket'. I think David Diamond's one is mostly his own, based on 'Handsome Cabin Boy', and shouldn't have a Laws' number (or be DT #444). In 'Short Jacket' the maid goes to sea in search of her lover' and reveals her sex only upon leaving the ship. No marriage to the captain there.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:42 PM

The version of "Cabin Boy" that I'm most familiar with is one I learned From a Sally Rogers, recording, When I Was a Fair Maid. Should it be assigned DT #445, Laws N13? Is it a traditional version of the song, or something more modern?
There's also Soldier Maid - where does that fit in?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:44 PM

Whoops, I goofed. The captain doesn't marry her in "The Handsome Cabin Boy", he justs gets her pregnant.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: harpgirl
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:48 PM

...well, that figures!

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:53 PM

For "Soldier Maid" and Sally Rodgers song see 'Female Drummer' on the Bodley Ballads website. It isn't "Short Jacket" or "Handsome/ Female Cabin Boy" or "Maid on the Shore".

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 06:59 PM

Try here:
http://metalab.unc.edu/jimmy/folkden/
This should take you to Roger McGuinn's site with words and Roger singing his version. I also ran on to the song with a different tune than the one I am used to hearing on the internet in the last couple of weeks and have been unable to back track and relocate it.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 07:04 PM

Any other songs related to these two? It's developing into quite a collection. We could record a whole CD of various versions.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 08:17 PM

Joe, you're getting your soldiers mixed up with your sailors. Another sailor is Jackie Monroe. I haven't heard that many female soldier songs. I do remember that there actually was a woman who dressed as a man to become a soldier during the Civil War, and was decorated as well. Think she wound up dying of tuberculosis. There were probably more that weren't discovered...

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 08:32 PM

"The Bold Soldier", Laws M27, in DT file DOUGTRD2, and DOUGTRD4 is "The Bold Dragoon" (one of 2) on the Bodley Ballads website. He was a keeper in Abraham Miles' "The Masterpiece of Love Songs" (ZN1516 in the broadside ballad index on my website) then a sailor in "The Seamans Renown" (ZN2487). Occupations are not fixed quantities. [An earlier version of the story is in my broadside ballad index at ZN3202]

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Llanfair
Date: 22 Aug 00 - 10:32 AM

I seem to remember, in the dim and distant past, hearing a song that described EVERYONE in the army, navy and merchant navy as being a "concealed" female!!! anyone know of it? Bron.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock
Date: 22 Aug 00 - 10:51 AM

"Billy Taylor" or "Willie Taylor" (2 versions of the same song as far as I know) are of a similar vein. Ah, that old story: girl meets boy, boy leaves for sea, girl becomes boy to go to sea, "boy" found out to be girl, real boy has new girl, girl kills boy...

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 22 Aug 00 - 03:51 PM

The semi-comic "Billy Taylor" seems to be older than the 'straight' "Bold William Taylor". Several copies of both are on the Bodley Ballads website. Laws has both as N11.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 22 Aug 00 - 04:37 PM

For a girl disguised as a sailor see Laws' N6 through N17 in DT.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Aug 00 - 04:44 PM

It goes for pirates too, Ann Bonney was a really successful pirate as a man, until a woman, also disguised as a man, fell in love with her and she had to reveal her own secret. They then went on to become two of the most successful pirate captains ever.... Ann never really went back to womens' clothing although I believe she did marry later....

Makings of a song here?

LTS

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Barry Finn
Date: 22 Aug 00 - 08:00 PM

Then there's Dave Diamond's "Lifeboat Man" to the tune of the "Hog Eye Man" (it's in the DT)

The lifeboat man, he calls "Ahoy!
"I've saved the handsome cabin boy."
(Chorus)

To the lifeboat, everybody run to the lifeboat
Row ashore in the lifeboat, oh
We want the lifeboat man

Barry

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 23 Aug 00 - 03:42 AM

The DT has both THE FEMALE DRUMMER and FEMALE DRUMMER.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Aug 00 - 03:47 AM

OK, I gather that When I Was a Fair Maidand Soldier Maid are the same song - basically the same tune, and almost the same lyrics, with changes made for the branch of service. Is there a Laws or DT number for the song?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Aug 00 - 11:56 AM

Anyone got the words to the Female Morris man? To think I slept with a Morris team, and a maiden all the while....

LTS

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 23 Aug 00 - 12:34 PM

Soldier Maid/ Female Drummer is #226 in Steve Roud's folk song and broadside indexes, but there's no Laws # for it.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 24 Aug 00 - 07:10 AM

another title that has been used (by the Watersons on Yorkshire Garland) for Soldier Maid/Female Drummer is 'Pretty Drummer Boy'.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 24 Aug 00 - 03:13 PM

"Maid on the Shore/ The Sea Captain/ Mermaid" is Laws' K27. Laws noted no broadside copy. The number is 181 in Steve Roud's folk song index, but there's no broadside copy noted in his folk or broadside ballad indexes.

The elusive broadside is on the Bodley Ballads website as "On the sea shore, O".

PS: Laws' N3, "The Female Sailor Bold" is also about a female disguised as a sailor.

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: GUEST,Bob Schwarer
Date: 24 Aug 00 - 03:26 PM

Also, "The Rambling Female Sailor". Ended up falling off a mast or yard.

Bob Schwarer

Subject: RE: the handsome cabin boy, any ideas?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Aug 00 - 03:36 PM

Li'l Abner. Does that help?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FEMALE DRUMMER
From: GUEST,Marie O'Connell
Date: 16 Jul 04 - 05:01 PM

The Female Drummer

When I was a fair maid about 17
I listed in the navy for to serve the queen
I listed in the navy a sailor lad to stand
To hear the cannons rattlin' and the music so grand
the music so grand, the music so grand
To hear the cannons rattlin' and the music so grand

The Officer that listed me was a tall and a handsome man
He said you'll make a sailor so come along my man
My waist being tall and slender, my fingers long and thin
The very soon they learnéd me, I soon exceeded them
I soon exceeded them, I soon exceeded them
The very soon they learnéd me, I soon exceeded them

They sent me to bed and they sent me to bunk
To lie with a sailor I never was afraid
But taking off my blue coat it often makes me smile
To think I've lain with a 100 men and a maiden all the while
a maiden all the while, a maiden all the while
For To think I've lain with a 100 men and a maiden all the while

They sent me up to London for to guard the tower
And I'm sure I might be there till my very dying hour
But a lady fell in love with me, I told her I was a maid
She went into the captain and my secret she betrayed
My secret she betrayed, my secret she betrayed
She went into the captain and my secret she betrayed

The Captain he came up to me and asked if this was so
I dare not I dare not I dare not say NO!
It's a pity we should lose you such a sailor lad you made
It's a pity we should lose you such a handsome young maid
a handsome young maid, a handsome young maid
It's a pity we should lose you such a handsome young maid

So fair thee well captain you've been so kind to me
And likewise my shipmates I'm sorry to part with thee
But if ever the navy needs a lad a sailor I'll remain
I'll put out me hat and feathers and run the riggin again
I'll run the riggin again, I'll run the riggin again,
I'll put out me hat and feathers and run the riggin again

---

See Handsome Young Sailor in the Digital Tradition